YET again this was a many and varied week in Parliament and Furness ahead of the Whitsun Recess, reminding me why I have the best job in the world.

I spent a lot of time this week talking about shipbuilding. I met the Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, to talk about the MoD and the part it could play in levelling up, supporting our supply chains and local businesses. As Shipbuilding Tsar he is passionate about Barrow’s proud industrial heritage. He sang the praises of the incredible work that the Barrow shipyard has been doing, completing boats despite the pandemic.

On Tuesday, I met the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Shipbuilding to discuss this upcoming refresh of the Shipbuilding Strategy and its implications. As part of it, there is the potential to create a new National Skills Academy for Maritime Shipbuilding. I made clear that, if this is to happen, then Barrow would make an ideal location, especially given that we already have the Submarine Academy at BAE, with the new University Campus planned to be adjacent as part of the £25m Town Deal. I will continue to press our case.

Also on Tuesday, I met with the Taiwanese Ambassador about the increased pressure being put on them by the Chinese state, especially in the South China Sea. It is vital for democracies like us to support our democratic allies like Taiwan to show that democracy can and does work. I am glad that the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is undertaking her first operational deployment as a visible demonstration of that. Why do I mention this? Because the carrier will be supported on her journey by a Barrow-built Astute-class submarine. Not only does shipbuilding sustain our local economy and thousands of jobs, it also fulfils a wider role in spreading democracy around the world, and protecting our allies.

The second theme this week has been tourism. As part of English Tourism Week, it was my absolute pleasure to accompany Carl Bevan from Cumbrian Tourism to visit yet more excellent local venues. In a summer of ‘staycations’, we should do all we can to encourage visitors to see what we have to offer. We stopped at a range of sites who are back open and who would appreciate your support after a torrid year.

We visited Furness Golf Club, Furness Abbey, Abbey House Hotel, and Ulverston Golf Club in the blazing sunshine to promote a these fantastic local resources - which only scratch the surface of what Furness and Cumbria have to offer.

A colleague recently sent me a WhatsApp message saying that he would be staying in Barrow this summer, and asking what there was to do. I started to tap out a response but soon realised that the message was becoming far too long! It was easier to pick up the phone and tell him in full. It reminded me that we really don’t shout enough about what we have here. We must, because every visitor helps to support our local businesses as they emerge from this incredibly challenging year.